Updated: Feb 23, 2020
"This is the most broken society has ever been. People blame each other. People don't listen to each other. No one talks to anybody who has views different to them. They just read things that they agree with. We (mediators) are probably the only people who really know how to to bridge those gaps between people with totally different views."
This is Roy, he has been a volunteer mediator in the Bay Area for 30 years. I describe Roy as a confident and warm person. He has salt and pepper hair and beard, with some dashes of brown and ginger. He has short hair, except for a long curl at the back of his head which he sets on his shoulder. He wears aviator glasses and usually sports button-up shirts and khaki pants. Roy and Diane’s home feels full of life. I admired the photos and art on their walls, which serve as glimpses into their life adventures. We settled down on a large wooden table, I took out my notebook and started the recorder. "Thank you so much for your time," I said, he nodded, we both smiled and laughed. Why do you think you became interested in conflict resolution? Thanks to all the dialogues he has participated in, all the learning, studying and conversations he’s been a part of, he realized that conflict is omnipresent. He says most people associate conflict with negative situations. "Very few people see the positive in conflict" he explained.